Like puberty and wearing jean jackets pinned with 1980s hair metal band patches, everybody goes through a phase sometime between the ages of 8 and 13 where they want to grow up to be a ninja. I was not exempt from this. I spent 7 months in Tae Kwon Do as an 11-year-old before I found out that I was in the wrong martial arts course to be a ninja and that my steady diet of Cheetos and Dr. Pepper would not make me sneaky. But unlike puberty and an affinity for jean jackets, some people never grow out of the awkward ninja-wannabe stage.

Via KFOR…

EDMOND, Okla. – ‘American Ninja Warrior’ brings out the best athletes in the world. But, until recently – there wasn’t really a place for Oklahoma hopefuls to train.

John Snethen makes prosthetics for a living. But, he’s always been fascinated with that giant obstacle course.

“I watch the show and was big into the show, and there was no place to really go and learn it,” Snethen said. “That looks like the show.”

He hired a company to build Defy, a new Edmond gym…

It’s got all the challenges you see on the show but on a slightly smaller scale.

I shouldn’t be surprised that this was some Edmond guy’s idea. The suburb already has a bakery for dogs and a reiki energy healing center. The well-to-do have to get creative if they are going to out affluence each other.

Here’s more…